Phillies Spring Training - Day 4

Today was a day off from baseball. The Phillies were playing out of town in Sarasota, so we decided to try again to go to Lenny's "Philadelphia Style" restaurant, this time for breakfast. Well, we are batting 0-2 at Lenny's. When we got there, there must have been 50 people waiting outside to get in - most of them wearing Phillies gear. I guess the food and atmosphere are good there, so we will have to try again another day. We ended up instead at an IHOP over in Clearwater Beach where we had a decent breakfast after a short wait.

After breakfast, we decided to drive down the barrier islands on the west side of the Pinnellas Peninsula from Clearwater Beach to the mouth of Tampa Bay Bay adjacent to St. Petersburg. The road down the coast is dotted with many hotels, resorts, and condominiums, with several small towns, parks and public beach accesses along the way. We stopped at a beach at Treasure Island City and took a short walk up and down the white sand.

Sunset Beach at Treasure Island City - Pinellias Peninsula barrier islands - Clearwater to St. Petersburg

We also saw a rather strange sight at a 7-11 where we stopped to get a bottle of water. A large egret was standing outside the store, waiting for a handout. I suppose that may be easier than trying to catch fish along the shore. The only thing missing was a small cardboard sign saying "Will fly for food" or something similar.

We ended up as far as you can drive down the coast to Mullet Key a small island very close to the middle of the entrance to Tampa Bay. The Key was once home to a military fort, Ft. De Soto, and is now a large county park, with a campground, boat ramps, fishing pier, hiking/biking trails, kayak rentals and lots of picnic areas, etc.

The old fort and military base was built starting in 1898 in response to our involvement in the Spanish American War. The facilities were completed and named Ft. De Soto in 1900 and became a sub-post of Ft. Dade on neighboring Egmont Key. The fort was basically a battery with two casements, each holding 4 twelve inch mortars. The casements were open as the mortars fired high, arching cannon balls designed to smash through the wooden decks of ships from above. The fort is virtually invisible from the water as the walls are basically, big sand berms, now covered with vegetation. Most of the old military buildings at the fort are now gone, but some foundations and associated structures are still visible. One building, the old Quarterhouse Storehouse has been restored and now houses a small museum displaying historical memorabilia and recounting the long history of the area.

Ft DeSoto as now seen from the water

Gun emplacements

Fishing pier and beach

Beach and remains of old wharf

Quartermaster Storehouse Museum and guard birds

Strangler Fig tree

Fishing Pier

Site of old fort buildings

Osprey nest

Waiting For Lunch

After visiting Ft. De Soto, we headed back up the peninsula, taking the main road back into town towards Dunedin, a small town along the coast just north of Clearwater. The town, originally founded by Scotsmen is now the spring training home of the Tronto Blue Jays and has a nice downtown area with shoppes, restaurants, and a small marina and fishing pier.

We walked around town and decided to have an early dinner at Kelly's Chickaboom. We ate outside in an inside-outside bar, restaurant, and garden setting. The food was excellent and we learned about "the grouper scam". Although not endangered, the grouper fish has seasonal catch restrictions, and right now catching them is prohibited. The fish however is a local favorite and appears on most restaurant menus around town. When ordering the cajun blackened grouper sandwich at Kelly's, our waitress told us they were substituting mai-mai for grouper due to the catch restrictions and wanted to ask if that would be O.K. She also said some restaurants that attract a lot of tourists don't bother to tell them they are not getting grouper but rather a substitute fish. I said mai-mai would be fine. It was excellent.

Dunedin

Pinellas Trail

The E. Marquis Pinellas Bike Trail is a 38 mile hike and bike trail through Pinellas County along an old rail line running from Tarpon Springs in the north to downtown St. Petersburg in the south. It runs through downtown Dunedin and Clearwater and we have crossed over it a lot during our travels in the area.

Kelly's Chicaboom

Ice Cream for desert

After a delicious homemade ice cream cone for desert, we walked down to the town pier to watch the sunset. It was another beautiful sunset to end the day.